Look at the changes to the fire service and the police service since 1979.

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       Lisa Worsley

Foundation Degree In Public Services (Criminal Justice)

Public Service Management

PSCJ15

Colin Whittaker

By Lisa Worlsey

Abstract

In this report I have looked at the changes to the fire service and the police service since 1979.

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s the conservative government was in power under the power of Margaret Thatcher. Then in 1997 Tony Blair came in to power with New Labour.

Under the power of Margaret Thatcher the public services underwent a number of changes, as I have described throughout this report.

I have analysed both public service throughout their changes due to political changes.

Contents

Title page                        1

Abstract                        2

Contents                         3

Methodology                        4

Findings                        5

Analysis                        12

Conclusion                        14

Acknowledgements                15

Bibliography                        16

Methodology

For this report I shall be:

  • Talking to members of the fire service

  • Talking to members of the police service

  • Looking through newspapers

  • Listening to the news

  • Looking through websites

Findings

Throughout England there was a strongly unionised local government sector, which was renowned for strikes and many other forms of industrial disruption. This situation reached its peak in 1979 with the ‘Winter of Discontent’, which helped over through James Callaghan’s Labour government to Margaret Thatcher for the Conservative Party.

 

Margaret Thatcher was the first lady Prime Minister and had power over the conservative party until the 1990’s, until John Major took over.

(However in 1997 the Conservative government lost to Tony Blair who is the leader of the Labour government, and is still in-control of the New Labour Party today.)

At this time the local authorities became a target from the government, which aimed to roll back the burdening public sector. They also looked at liberating the forces of the market.

Margaret Thatcher’s intention was to make this country more privatised.                              By doing this we saw trade unions loosing power and we also saw a big decrease in state support. Thatcher did this by selling all companies i.e. British rail to the highest bidder, thus making this country more privatised.

Thatcher cut all public services funding down apart from the police force; she gave them a 50% pay rise, as she wanted more order over the country. Thus many people wanted to join the police service. Meanwhile in other public service there was a staff shortage.

Thatcher made other changes to the public sector as a whole; Thatcher didn’t actually make changes to every public sector. So the fire service had to make changes, within their workforce, to comply with the demands of Thatcher.

In the period of 1979 to 1997, successive Conservative governments brought about a radical and qualitative change in the financing of local authorities. (Atkinson and Wilks-Heeg, 2000, p85).

In 1980 the Conservative government brought out this new act, which was to revolutionise all public services. The Local Government, Planning Act 1980 this introduced new provisions relating to the 3 main areas of reform:

  • Finance
  • Functions
  • Market

This new act introduced Compulsory, Competitive, and Tendering.

Best value replaced compulsory competitive tendering. Authorities are no longer required to subject services to competition and success will not be measured according to how many services are subjected to competitive tender. The Government is less interested in who provides a service or how it is provided than whether it makes a positive difference to the services local people receive. But it believes that fair and open competition will most often be the best way of demonstrating that a function is being carried out competitively. It is the provision of services either locally or nationally and is looking for different ways services can be delivered by a mix of service providers from the public, private, and voluntary sectors. (www.bestvalue.org)

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This act was later extended in 1988

There were three components of the process of public sector reform in the UK. Privatisation is the sale of state assets to a private buyer. Disengagement is the substitution of arm's length regulation for direct political control. Liberalisation is the removal of statutory restrictions on competition. ().

In 1982 Margaret Thatcher brought out the Audit commission. This was to change the public sector as we knew it. They were responsible to ensure that public money was being spent economically, efficiently and effectively. (The 3 e’s of management). They are there to implement ...

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